Pete Townshend walks offstage during The Who gig in Florida

Guitarist reportedly left the stage during encore as sound levels were too loud

The Who‘s Pete Townshend reportedly walked offstage at a gig in Florida this week.

The guitarist, who has battled with hearing loss, left during an encore of ‘You Better You Bet’ during The Who show in Sunrise, Florida yesterday, Rolling Stone reports.

Before leaving the stage, Townshend reportedly appeared unhappy with the sound levels onstage, shouting “too loud” at the sound engineer before walking off. When the rest of the band continued into ‘Baba O’ Riley’ to end the show, he didn’t reappear.

The show was the first date in the band’s first tour in four years, titled ‘Quadrophenia and More’. Townshend’s brother Simon later said on Twitter “Pete walked off tonight because it was too loud. Was a good show but had some technical problems.”

Last month, Pete Townshend has said he still feels “the ghosts” of drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle onstage. The guitarist, who published his long-awaited memoir Who I Am on October 11 said that he and singer Roger Daltrey feel the presence of their former bandmates.

Speaking about the difficulty he faced continuing the band after John Entwistle’s death in 2002, he said: “We feel the ghosts of Keith and John. The second phase of The Who in a sense was really when we started to tour again around the year 2000, 2001. We were still able to evoke the sound, particularly with Zak Starkey. Now it’s much more difficult even though Zak’s there. John’s sound was very big and rich and organic.”

He added: “When John died, there was a hole in the sound onstage and I was able to grow into that and find space. And I have to say as a guitar player, I prefer working without John. But as a member of The Who creating the incredible, powerful, driving, visceral sound, he’s gone. I can’t really do that again.”